WIAA State 4A Boys Swim: Issaquah bookends the Meet for their Historic Win; Times tumble

2/22/2025

(Federal Way, WA) The 4A State Boys swim and dive Championships were held this last week at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way. Skyline came in as the defending 4A champions and had won 3 of the last 5 with titles in 2019 and 2020 as well. Our coverage below includes our meet re-caps, listing of AAA and AAC times, each event results and video replay, photo gallery and more, just keep scrolling!

New Champion is Crowned!

This year there was a new challenge and it was the Issaquah Eagles searching for their 1st ever Boys State championship. The Eagles would be the ones to beat. Newport and Tahoma would be the other 2 teams to contend with as each led the team standings at one point during the competition. This battle would go down to the final events.

Issaquah began the day with a tremendous finish in the 200 yard medley relay edging out Curtis to begin the day in 1st place. The Eagles got a nice boost from Jr Aaron Bell with a win in the 50 Free and Sr Aiden Stauffer won the B-heat as well adding needed points and after the 50 Free Issaquah led Newport 86-70.

The back and forth with Newport and Tahoma began in the next event with Newport’s Nathan Xu winning the 100 Butterfly but Issaquah did take 4th. The Butterfly is technically the 6th event with diving as the 5th event but the diving is held on Thursday but their team scores are not added in until after the 4th event of the Saturday program. Newport’s Eric Chen took 7th so his points were then added and after the Butterfly the Knights had taken the lead 111-101.

Bell and Stauffer then grabbed the lead back for the Eagles with Bell winning the 100 Free and Stauffer placing 4th moved Issaquah back into 1st with a 136-132 lead over Newport. Tahoma then made their move in the 500 Free as neither Issaquah or Newport had anyone in the top 16. The Bears finished 5th and 7th picking up 26 points and jetting to the top of the leaderboard with 149 points now up by 13.

The Bears added to their lead in the 200 Free relay placing 3rd while the Eagles were just behind in 4th and Newport was 9th. Issaquah and Newport answered with the Eagles placing 3rd and 7th in the Backstroke and Newport taking 11th. That was more than enough to push the Eagles back to the top of the leaderboard with 194 over Tahoma’s 181 and Newport 10 back with 171.

In the Breaststroke Newport surged past Tahoma with a 3rd place finish and Issaquah picked up a few points with a 13th place finish. So it all came down to the final event, the 400 Free relay. Issaquah would need to really fall off as they led 198 to 187 over the Knights as the Bears were still at 181.

Issaquah’s relay team led off with Owen Stauffer and then Henry Holtan swam. Holtan may have had the key leg as he gave the Eagles a good lead doing his leg in 47.12. Jae Lee maintained that lead and then Aaron Bell iced it with a blazing 44.56 final run and the Eagles won by nearly a full second over Newport who put in a terrific effort. Tahoma ended up 7th and clinched the 3rd place trophy.

The Redmond Mustangs made a nice run and held off the defending Champs Skyline for the final trophy. Redmond’s big move came in the Breaststroke when they qualified 3 in the final 8 and finished 5th, 6th and 7th but that added 39 points moving them from 6th to 4th place. Their relay team took 5th in the final event to secure the trophy. Senior Jaiden Sreenivasin led the Mustangs with a big win in the 200 Free and taking 2nd in the 500 Free. He also swam the anchor in the Mustangs winning 200 Free relay team.

4A Team Final Scores

  1. Issaquah                          238   2. Newport                           221
  3. Tahoma                            205   4. Redmond                           191
  5. Skyline                         185.5   6. Lake Stevens                      151
  7. Curtis                            139   8. Wenatchee                         123
  9. Mount Rainier                     122  10. Eastlake                          121
 11. Woodinville                       108  11. Jackson                           108
 13. Stadium                            57  14. Puyallup                           51
 15. Kamiak                             40  16. South Kitsap                       37
 17. Kennedy Catholic                   34  17. Camas                              34
 19. Olympia                            25  20. Richland                           23
 21. Sumner                             22  22. Union                              14
 23. Hazen                            13.5  24. Juanita                            11
 25. Eastmont                           10  26. Kentwood                            9
 26. Moses Lake                          9  28. Mt Si                               8
 29. Glacier Peak                        4  29. Bothell                             4
 31. Lincoln (Seattle)                   3  32. Hanford                             2
 32. Rogers                              2

Blazing Times and New Faces

The swimmers were setting the time clock ablaze blistering several records and recording an eye popping 14 automatic All-America times and another 27 All-America consideration times for 41 total.

Three State and Meet times fell on Friday and Saturday. Sr Jaiden Sreenivasin from Redmond pummeled the 200 Freestyle with a 1:36.90 final time. He was the defending Champ winning the event last year in a time of 1:40.20 so he shaved more than 3 seconds off his own time from last year. He snatched the new meet and state record from Bremerton’s Nathan Adrian who set it with a 1:37.17 back in 2006.

The 200 IM simply took a pounding all week from all classifications. Earlier on Saturday Capital’s Andrew Coombs pulled more than 4 seconds off his qualifying time and shattered the state meet record with a 1:46.83 with the first sub 1:47 time in state history beating the old record of 1:47.60, the only sub 1:48 time in state history by Abrahm Devine of Lakeside (Sea) in 2014.

Syunta Lee, one of the new faces to high school swimming as a freshman from Jackson allowed Coombs to hold the state record for about 4 hours. When Lee got done with his run in the finals the time read 1:46.66 nosing out Coombs by 2/10’s of a second. To further add to the total destruction of the 200 IM times Will Spencer of Mount Rainier put up only the 4th sub 1:48 time of all time with a 1:47.84 slashing a full second off of his qualifying time. But Lee took a second and a half off of his for the eye-popping win.

Another new face also set both a state and meet record, at least new face to the 4A classification. Ben Madson had been a big part of helping Pullman win back-to-back 2A/1A State Championships the last 2 years but transferred to Wenatchee in the off-season. Madson set the 2a/1A meet record last year while winning the Backstroke in a time of 48.61. Madson missed the State record by just a half second.

This year he left no doubt by setting the only sub :48 time in his preliminary run with a time of 47.97. Madson wanted to make sure everyone knew this was no fluke and laid down another historic run this time adding to his record with a 47.82 for the new mark. He now owns the top two state marks ever and has meet records in two classifications.

Day 1 Preliminary Highlights

After the 3A’s fried the clock the expectations of a hot 4A preliminary round were high and they did not disappoint. Another fabulous Freshman flashed signs of being a huge problem for everyone facing him for the next 3 years. Jackson’s Syunta Lee blazed himself to a new meet a state record in the 200 IM. of 1:48.27.

Lee broke Jackson alum Jonathan Cook’s 2 top times in the all-time top 10 of 1:49.15 and 1:48.36 in 2018 and 2017. Lee had a target to aim for as Mount Rainier’s Will Spencer, a senior, set a PR with a 1:48.90 time in the 2nd heat. Spencer’s time was the 2nd fastest in state history for about 5 minutes. The Lee set his mark. Both times were automatic All-America (AAA) times.

The 4A’s weren’t done destroying the 200 IM as Skyline senior Terry Lee qualified 3rd with a 1:51.06 which is an All-America consideration time (AAC).

Syunta Lee was not finished and took to the marathon of swimming in the 500 freestyle. Lee would be facing the defending Champion in this event Jaiden Sreenivasan a senior from Redmond. Sreenivasan was in the 2nd heat and finished with a 4:34.79 just off his qualifying time and nearly a second faster from his winning time last year.

But Lee who qualified with a blazing time of 4:26.46 had more in his tank. The all-timed record for the 500 is 4:23.06 set by Wes Oliver of Sammamish back in 1995. Steve Herron of Lake Washington is the only other sub 4:24 with a 4:23.51 from 1988.

Lee checked in just behind those two with a brilliant 4:24.03. Again, he’s a freshman. That’s more than 4 seconds under the AAA minimum time of 4:28.60.

There was one more AAA time just a little State and Meet record in the Backstroke. Wenatchee’s Ben Madson ripped through the water in a stunning time of 47.97. Madson’s time knocked off Thomas Anderson’s all-time record in 4A of 48.10. Madsen,a senior, won this event last year as junior but it was the 2A/1A event as he was at Pullman High School. Madson now has the top 10 time in both the 4A and 2A/1A classifications. Last year’s winning time was 48.61.

All-America Automatic Times

Saturday
Jaiden Sreenivasin Sr Redmond 200 Freestyle 1:36.90 *State and Meet Record
Jack Andrew Jr Stadium 200 Freestyle 1:38.39
Syunta Lee Fr Jackson 200 IM 1:46.66 *State and Meet Record
Will Spencer Sr Mount Rainier 200 IM 1:47.84
Aaron Bell Jr Issaquah 50 Freestyle 20.23
Ben Madson Sr Wenatchee 50 Freestyle 20.35
Aaron Bell Jr Issaquah 100 Freestyle 44.55
Syunta Lee Fr Jackson 500 Freestyle 4:24.56
Jaiden Sreenivasin Sr Redmond 500 Freestyle 4:28.14
Ben Madson Sr Wenatchee 100 Backstroke 47.82 *State and Meet Record

Friday
Syunta Lee Fr Jackson 200 IM 1:48.27
Will Spencer Sr Mount Rainier 200 IM 1:48.90
Syunta Lee Fr Jackson 500 Freestyle 4:24.03
Ben Madson Sr Wenatchee 100 Backstroke 47.97

All-America Consideration Times

Saturday
Issaquah Relay Team 200 Medley 1:32.79
Curtis Relay Team 200 Medley 1:33.61
Newport Relay team 200 Medley 1:33.72
Camden Blevins-Mohr Sr Lake Stevens 50 Freestyle 20.79
Nathan Xu Sr Newport 100 Butterfly 49.08
Camden Blevins-Mohr Sr Lake Stevens 100 Butterfly 49.18
Tyler Lewis So Skyline 100 Butterfly 49.56
Jack Andrew Jr Stadium 500 Freestyle 4:33.00
Redmond Relay Team 200 Freestyle 1:25.15
Lake Stevens Relay Team 200 Freestyle 1:25.30
Tahoma Relay Team 200 Freestyle 1:25.67
Will Spencer Sr Mount Rainier 100 Backstroke 49.16
Owen Stauffer So Issaquah 100 Backstroke 49.29
Justin Brown Jr Eastlake 100 Breaststroke 56.27
Cota Clise Sr Puyallup 100 Breastroke 56.33
Alexander Zhao So Newport 100 Breastroke 56.39
Issaquah Relay Team 400 Freestyle 3:07.22
Newport Relay Team 400 Freestyle 3:08.14

Friday
Issaquah Relay Team 200 Medley 1:33.98
Jack Andrew Jr Stadium 200 Freestyle 1:39.29
Jaiden Sreenivasin Sr Redmond 200 Freestyle 1:39.71
Terry Lee Sr Skyline 200 IM 1:51.06
Ben Madson Sr Wenatchee 50 Freeastyle 20.48
Aaron Bell Jr Issaquah 50 Freestyle 20.79
Will Spencer Sr Mount Rainier 100 Backstroke 49.24
Terry Lee Sr Skyline 100 Backstroke 49.29
Justin Brown Jr Eastlake 100 Breaststroke 55.45

Special Awards

Each meet gave out several special awards including the Academic State team Champions, Swimmer of the Meet, Coach of the year and they honored 1 official for their time and commitment. Here are the 4A awards.

Official of the Year
James Tubberville

4A Academic State Champions
Olympia Bears GPA 3.92

4A Coach of the Year
Laura Halter-Issaquah

4A Swimmer of the Meet
Syunta Lee Freshman Jackson

Adaptive Competition

The 4A Adaptive competition was again one of the many highlights at the 4A swim meet. This year there were 6 competitors that raced in both the 50 Free and 50 Backstroke competitions. Soph Kiefer Smillie of Olympia won both races. In the 1st race Smillie edged Jr Jordan Davidson of Eastmont but just a half second in the Freestyle race in a time of 34.44 to Davidson’s 34.98.

Not far behind was Jr Josh Goulter of Hazen who took 3rd in a time of 37.57. Keller Yang a Sr from Richland was 4th Frosh Torin Trexler from Moses Lake took 5th and in 6th place was Alex Nunez a Sr from Skyview.

In the 50 Backstroke Smillie took 6 seconds off his qualifying time and won with a final time of 38.64. Goulter had an excellent run taking 2nd in a time of 44.91 and in 3rd was Davidson finishing in 49.09. 4th place went to Yang, Trexler was 5th and Nunez 6th.

These 6 swimmers showed great school spirit, determination and reminded everyone of why sports and activities are so important in the schools. They were all great representatives of their schools and all were awarded medals for their efforts. In an editorial comment here, this is truly one of our favorite events to cover each and every year. It is the epitome of high school sports. Congratulations to all 6 athletes.

Full videos of both races just below.

Adaptive 50-yard Freestyle